Life on the COB (part 1)

Without compromising to many secrets (there are hundreds of Iraqis who work here and who deliver here every day – so it’s unlikely to be a secret, well, anything I’m going to tell you anyway). Someone also told me today that you can find all sorts of interesting things on Youtube if you feel inclined………..

As far as I can tell the COB (Continuity Operating Base) was set up by the British in 2003 during and after Operation Telec (the invasion of Iraq) and there are plenty of signs (like the one’s below, of their original occupation – regimental crests painted 10’ high on some of the T-Walls (T-Walls are the huge lumps of precast, moveable, concrete, interlocking walls that are used to surround everything here) as well as other less obvious signs, like labels on doors for ranks that I know are not part of the present scenery.

Not long after the war was over, the companies usually associated with picking the last meat from the bleached bones of a long dead carcass (often know as Aid Agencies, Private Security Companies and “Infrastructure Regeneration” Companies, arrived and set up adjacent to the military base, but under their protection.) All this is taking place in the area directly adjacent to the airport, so there is a certain amount of infrastructure already here, such as roads and buildings (just imagine the area around any airport). As these arrive and set up, so the T-Wall expands…….I don’t know how big the whole place is but it’s a hell of a long way to drive around it !

I’m telling you all this because as I told you yesterday, I have been stuck here for the last few days with very little supervision and a couple of long term blokes who seem to know where everything is – so consequently I have been led a little astray (in the working “unsupervised” category at least). Yesterday they took me to somewhere called Echos. Echos is a big café and looks (from the inside) very nice and very sort of “barny” (see below). It’s run by an Eastern European or Danish (I never got to the bottom of that bit) Christian Charity. They do far better food than you will get in any of the canteens (as far as I can tell) with a much wider selection, comfy chairs and tables, games you can borrow, a pool table, reading material etc. etc. etc.

When I mentioned to the boss that I had been there for the first time ever yesterday she immediately decided that we should all go for lunch – which was nice, and when one of the wags in the office piped up that Gilby was to tight to pay for lunch if he could get a free one (…….I may have mentioned that at some point in the past…..) she offered to buy everyone lunch – which was even nicer ! I’m afraid that I had to have a burger (a little disappointing) and chips with cheese (very nice thank you) but the best thing was hovering up someone else’s pizza when they were full because that was the dogs ! Pizza for me the next time someone offers to buy me lunch I can tell you (who said anything about tight ?).

Echos is in a little enclave of normality (a long as you ignore the sandbags, barbed wire and concrete) with an armoured church, to be seen to be believed,

And shops of varying quality and sort. I didn’t venture into the shops today because I can only take so much excitement at once, but I’m sure I will give them a visit before I’m through this time around.



I’ll take a few more pictures around the COB tomorrow and then we can do part 2 I think (now that I know certain things are not state secrets and that pictures are not necessarily a hanging offence). I’m allowed back on site on Friday and then I think I’ll go down and stay for a few days to try and kill some time before getting too excited about coming home…….

Today’s inventory:

4 cigars

0 units and $0 dollars (thanks to a nice boss’s generosity)

Gym – a good hour at 10% below previous capacity followed by 2 litres of fluid and a huge dinner (to go with the huge lunch)

Food – Huge lunch and a huge dinner. The dinner will stand out for a while because we had Baskin and Robbins Cookies and Cream Ice Cream – hoorah !

Countdown – wait for it………

Other items of note – (drum roll……….) my return flight is booked and I have an e-ticket ! I have also collected my permanent pass from the most miserable American woman, who clearly believes that I should be grateful for the opportunity to piss about for a month so that I can have a piece of plastic which does just the same thing my other piece of plastic does but with a photo – well, whoop dee do. On the upside I only had to be in her company for 2 minutes and 1 of those she was giving someone else a sarcastic bollocking for something he had absolutely no idea about, but he took it very well considering her has to see her again ! I suppose it takes all sorts.

I’ve finished this early tonight so if anything interesting happens tonight then you will just have to wait until tomorrow !